The new set, Zendikar, is packed with powerful rares. Many of these rares have a new and unique flavor to them. This is a list showcasing what I believe are the best of these new rares.

#10 Pyromancer Ascension

Here’s the an  ascension card everyone is talking about. If you get it out early on in the game you can be copying Lightning Bolt, Burst Lightning, Fireball, or whatever else you may want. It also works particularly well with Chandra Ablaze. Red decks focusing on direct damage will certainly be powerful in standard.

#9 Archive Trap

This card remind me of Glimpse The Unthinkable. You can mill 13 cards for no mana at all! Of course, you’ll need your opponent to search their library, but that’s a very common thing in most MTG decks. Especially with the fetchlands and panoramas that are in standard now. It’s a great card that allows a free mill of nearly 1/4 of most decks.

#8 Bloodghast

This card is pretty popular, though I feel it’s a little over-hyped. It’s a creature that comes back from the graveyard to play when you play a land. It also has haste if an opponent has ten or less life. Running four of these would be pretty powerful, but at the same time it’s uncertain how powerful these will be in the future. Certainly a great card though, and also it’s certainly a descendant of Nehter Shadow.

#7 Malakir Bloodwitch

This card works well because it has a low cost relative to its power and also has a great effect. It will be a good card for tribal decks featuring vampires. What makes this card so powerful is that when it comes into play each opponent loses life equal to the number of vampires you control. Yep, each opponent. In multiplayer this card will secure you a victory, but even in single player it should provide at least four or five life.

#6 Scute Mob

These little bugs start to get pretty huge if you have at least five lands. You can put them out in the beginning of the game as chump blockers and then use them as powerful beasts later in the game. Not only that, but they can be decoys for the real cards you want to play. Waste your kill spells and then save the big creatures for later. Or use these as your primary means for assault.

#5 Day Of Judgement

Yep, quite a boring card here. It’s the same sort of Wrath Of God knock-off card that appears in every block somewhere along the line. Nothing to talk about here.

#4 Luminarch Ascension

This is the my favorite ascension card, though I realize there is another that’s stronger. As long as you can keep from taking any damage for four turns you’ll be alright. You can afford to lose all your creatures, all your spells, everything. As soon as you have four counters on this card you can start pumping out 4/4 angels and destroying any opponent. It’s incredibly powerful and shouldn’t be underestimated.

#3 Goblin Guide

Now here’s a piece of history. It’s the first creature to ever be printed as a 2/2 with haste for only one mana. It does have the negative effect of giving an opponent a land if the top card of their library is one, but the pay off is well worth it. This card will revolutionize many decks and will be around for a very long time.

#2 Bloodchief Ascension

Here’s the ascension everyone is talking about. It gets counters whenever an opponent loses two or more life in a turn. It only needs three counters to activate its final ability. This ability works well in black decks that focus on destroying creatures or forcing an opponent to discard cards. You could even mill them! This card has a lot of power in it once you have those three counters on it. And at one mana, this card can begin a game the in a very good way.

#1 Arid Mesa, Marsh Flats, Misty Rainforest, Scalding Tarn, & Verdant Catacombs

Well, did you expect anything else? Fetch-lands are always powerful. They also sell for a good chunk of change. My advice is this: sell them as long as you aren’t competitively playing MTG. The money will be well worth losing these lands. These cards are very powerful in Zendikar right now though, because they allow for two instances of landfall in one turn. It costs one life, but it’s incredibly worth it. It’s a little disappointing to have rare lands like this that aren’t really anything new, but the money and power they can provide is quite powerful. I don’t particularly like them, but they’re the best of the rares in Zendikar.

Thanks for reading!